Month: April 2015

utter madness, utter madnessDressed in animal skin so he spoke like oneHowling words of hurt; we are hurtReckless utterances by a semi-dressed kingThe nakedness reflecting mental nudityDevoid of sound judgement; pea brainsVerbal diarrhoea; words spoken without thoughtIndlu elikhulu yisikhulumi ukuvuza (the house of a loud mouth leaks)An army of lions led by a sheep wins not the warAn army of sheep led by a lion wins the warChinotanga kuwora pahove musoro!!!!“It is the head that rots first on a fish”Ukhasela ezikoThe king is an infant crawling to the fireplaceNaked king; Kuhlonishwa kabili“Respect is two way”Words spoken by the king buffles the mindGoodwill Zwelithini without the goodwilInsumansumane imali yamakhanda.Zwelithini; what say we?Ilizwe lithi “Without a leader, black ants are confused.”

You can set fire on us
Pile tyres on our bodies
Pour fuel on us with the glee of stupor
Throw stones till the end of time as if it’s your identity
Stone our children as if violence is not foreign in you
But we will survive this, us and you!!
You can decapitate our heads, bang them on walls
Throw us in dumps
But guess what we are not trash

We are foreigners with names and legacies to leave even for your own country
We are Naume Garisa mothers working for the next generation which will be borderless.
We are Emmauel Sithole , brothers working for a generation that does not kill to thrive .
We are Takawira Moyo watching our houses go up in flames, but our souls are intact.
We are Shepherd Ndlovu and Clayton Mudzingwa and we are not going home , for it is a difficult thing.
We are Ephraim Maskele leading the Ethiopian people in such a difficult space.
We are Joseph Mondlana and Martha Mongwe loving each other in wake of such violence beyond our different nationalities.
We are the fourteen year old shot in the midst of loot, but our future will not be looted.
We are Mhofu , killed but not nameless .
We are the 60 people who died in 2008, but our hope is still alive.

You can call us foreigners
Treat us as though we do not deserve what we worked for in your land
You can wring our necks but the minds and skills we retain
You can scatter us further, but we will survive
You can take away what we own but it will never be yours, not in eternity
You can watch us die on your pavements in Alex,
But the Emmanuel Sithole’s who remain behind thrive
We will live on and strengthen the works of our hands for Survival
You can drain us of momentary strength, but we will never become Xenophobic
Our Hope is in our survival
You are welcome in our lands to survive
We will treat you well, we will not even avenge, lest we become like you !!
We are foreigners but not too shattered to be a people.

This poem is dedicated to all foreign nationals who have suffered from the wave of Xenophobic attacks in South Africa…We will live through this..